House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday placed blame on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for delaying the passage of the small business relief bill, the fourth emergency coronavirus measure making its way through Congress.
“Mitch McConnell likes to say we delayed the bill. No, he delayed the bill,” Pelosi said during an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
The California Democrat admitted, however, that Democrats rejected a plan by McConnell to simply extend loan funding for small businesses and proposed even more small business funding as well as money for hospitals and coronavirus testing. Democratic leadership also called for the bill to include targeted funding for minority and women-owned businesses.
“Two weeks ago, he came to the floor and said this is all we’re doing, just the $250 [billion],” the speaker continued. “The Senate Democrats went to the floor and said no, no to that. We have a better idea about hospitals and testing and more funds for all of the businesses, shall we say the unbankable small businesses.”
“So we were very pleased that he finally came around to the fact that we had to go forward with this,” Pelosi said. “So he was the one wasting time.”
McConnell rejected Pelosi’s characterization of why the bill, which passed the Senate Tuesday evening, was held up for several days and tossed the blame back in the direction of Democrats.
“I am just sorry that it took my colleagues in Democratic leadership 12 days to accept the inevitable, and that they shut down emergency support for Main Street in a search for partisan ‘leverage’ that never materialized,” McConnell said.
The House is expected to vote Thursday on the small business relief bill, which includes $310 billion to replenish the Paycheck Protection, $60 billion for small lenders and community banks, $10 billion for Economic Injury Disaster Loan grants, $75 billion to help hospitals handle coronavirus-related expenses, and $25 billion for coronavirus testing and research.
Democrats, including Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, also proposed additional funding for states and localities and an expansion of food stamps, which the bill does not include.